lacedupshoes

777’s Belgian club Standard de Liège have been sanctioned. They have received a transfer ban and a limit on the amount of players they can have. The club hasn’t paid social security contributions, payroll tax and a transfer debt. Apparently yesterday the sporting director told the players the club is out of money, they cannot be paid anymore (and so they are now considering not playing the last three games of the season) and that it is very unclear whether 777 will pony up any more money. The board have issued a statement that they are in continuous contact with 777 and that they hope to have more news in the coming days. The press is speculating about a forced sale or a bankruptcy. Either way they think it is implausible 777 could get any new loans under the circumstances (see all of the legal procedures, Standard’s previous owner and the owner of their stadium have sued them as well for missing payments). Doesn’t bode well for Everton.

They've signed some quality players in the Championship last couple of years.

There is no way we are going down, the promoted sides really are dreadful this year. Burnley even spent quite a bit of money as well on this squad, but I don’t know whether Everton should have interest in any one of them when they inevitably go down.

I'm trying to be optimistic. So maybe a living within your means approach wouldn't be a bad thing for the club. There's much smaller clubs with much less inherent potential than Everton outperforming us using that model (think of Brentford). Maybe the sporting struggles of some of their acquisitions are a selection effect as well: they're looking to buy struggling sides as they're cheaper and they would have struggled and gotten relegated without 777 acquiring them as well. (I might be straining to be optimistic there) Convicted drug traffickers doesn't sound good though What's the story there?

Also says: Club owner Farhad Moshiri, who has invested hundreds of millions of pounds into the underperforming team during his tenure at the Liverpool-based club, is expected to exit with a fraction of the money he invested, said the person, who asked not to be identified since the negotiations are private.

That Kenwright bit is not actually in the Bloomberg article. It does say this, so at least not all of their purchases have been complete sporting failures: It has had some successes, such as leading Genoa back into Italy’s Serie A after inheriting a team that was on its way to relegation. Co-founder Josh Wander says 777 has more than doubled squad value at Genoa while reducing squad costs there by 50%. Vasco da Gama in Brazil also won promotion last year, while Hertha Berlin has been relegated to Germany’s second tier.

Do de have any idea what his diagnosis was or how long he’ll be out for?

I don't know, the Sulemana and Cornet rumours were loans, right? Maybe the Iwobi fee would give us more firepower, but I wonder whether any funds we would need to access could be freed up so quickly after his departure?

We have to be confident of getting a winger in on loan as well then, right?

Yeah, we're not paying that kind of money (it was 40 m including add-ons). And he's turned Brentford down as well. He's posted a clip from a press conference a couple of weeks ago on Twitter this morning, where he was asked whether he's staying at PSV and he answers 'Of course'. Probably right move for his development, though PSV are looking likely to get Lozano from Napoli as well. He can really hit the ball though, good crosser, nice touch on his shot, can dribble.

It’d be a shame to sell him so quickly, I think. Only 20 years old, scored goals in the Championship.

Brentford have bid 40 million euros and a sell-on percentage apparently.

PSV still trying to sign him according to Dutch journalist Rik Elfrink (PSV beat writer).

He’s turned down Burnley a couple of weeks ago and he told the press that he wants to stay at PSV this season. This would be his first season where he is the established starter really. I do really like him though, he has been very promising in his Belgium appearances, seems to have a good head on his shoulders. If we do want him, I do I think it makes sense to try and convince him now, as he might be out of our range if he has a good season for PSV.

We should! I’m in Molenbeek, how about you?

If we get Adams in, that would give Dyche some different options as well. As centre forwards we’d have Calvert Lewin with Adams and Maupay as backups, but I feel like Adams and Maupay could play as the supporting forward in his 4-4-2 as well. Danjuma would offer a more tricky option, Iwobi would be more of a midfield type player in there, like more of a Jeff Hendrick type. Though I do agree that the most likely plan or the one I want to see most is Danjuma behind DCL.

Abysmal performance, looked like real relegation candidates, all over the pitch. If I’d have to pick out positives, I thought Garner showed nice skill on a couple of turns and long passes (but he gave Digne a lot of time and space in the first half), and Danjuma looks like he has some skill at least (though I hope we don’t have to resort to playing him as the centre forward too often).

Thanks you all. Not worth the bother

Hello all! I'm a 31-year-old from Brussels, Belgium. I used to post here as Steve_E. Not sure that will ring a bell for many: I think I was most active a decade ago or perhaps even longer ago as apparently I first signed up here in 2010. I remember a lot of searching for illegal streams and all that. As the years went on, I shifted attention to other things popping up in life and simply started to follow football less. I did pop in from to time to have a look at what you lot made of happenings at the club when I noticed a particularly noteworthy result in the papers (positive or mostly negative these last couple of years) and quite a lot this past summer. Now my wife has a more demanding job and I'll have extra free time on my hands, so I've decided to splurge to get the footy package on the telly. As I'll be forming my own opinions again, I'd thought I'd sign up again to share them. Happy to say that I do still recognize quite a lot of names and see that you haven't really changed.